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NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE

Psychedelic Pill

“Smell the Horse!” Neil Young shouts that from time to time when his live jams with longtime, on-and-off backing band Crazy Horse really get cooking. Those are the moments when the Horse—drummer Ralph Molina, bassist Billy Talbot and guitarist Poncho Sampedro—rolls out a massive, hypnotic groove for Young’s distortion-loving guitar to ride. For fans of jammy rock, it’s about the best thing going, so they should love new double-album Psychedelic Pill, which finds Young and the Horse pushing past the 15-minute mark on three separate tracks.

One, opener “Driftin’ Back,” runs 28-plus, crazy for everyone except Young, who’s done about everything during five decades that have taken him from Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash through a solo career that’s produced a stack of classic records. The more compact (ha!) 17-minute cuts “Ramada Inn” and “Walk Like a Giant” actually produce more big moments than “Driftin’ Back,” with “Ramada Inn” deserving of a spot on a jammed-out-Neil playlist next to classics like “Cowgirl in the Sand” and “Love to Burn.”

The other six tunes range from fun (“Born in Ontario”) to sorta forgettable (“For the Love of Man”). Oh, and one of ’em clocks past the eight-minute mark. Smell the Horse!